The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has confirmed that Phase 2B of the Reporting of Conveyances and Goods (RCG) project will go ahead as originally planned in December Industry will be kept abreast through various communication platforms on progress made in this regard. Phase 2B of the RCG project is the implementation of e-case and e-penalty systems, with the private sector asserting that there has not been enough stakeholder engagement for these systems to be implemented correctly. However, Sars argues that they have been in discussions with the relevant sectors and stakeholders over the last couple of years about the RCG penalty regime in particular. A technical meeting is scheduled for later this month where Customs service providers will discuss the upcoming changes. This will be followed by meetings with the wider industry. According to Sars, there will be minimal impact on external stakeholders with e-case as it is reusing technology already incorporated at the organisation. “In the case of an e-case relating to a possible misdeclaration on a customs clearance declaration, or an e-case in respect of the possible nondeclaration of cargo, a request for the submission of supporting documents will be made to declarants (importers, exporters and clearing agents), or cargo reporters (eg, carriers and freight forwarders), as the case may be, using existing channels of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) communication and the supply of supporting documents via branch front-end or EasyScan and EasyFile,” he added. “The e-penalty solution enables Sars to automatically identify instances where possible penalties may be required to be instituted and to do the necessary calculations in respect of them. E-penalty cases do not currently require any systems development by external stakeholders.” Importers, exporters and clearing agents who fail to submit the conveyance and cargo reports prescribed in Customs legislation will receive a letter of intent relating to transgressions, with the normal process following thereafter. “Persons who have not submitted the conveyance and cargo reports prescribed in Customs legislation for which they are responsible will receive a periodic letter of intent relating to such transgressions together with the appropriate deposit amount due. “The normal process relating to the adjudication and imposition of administrative penalties then takes place followed by the imposition of a penalty, where appropriate, and the notification about it by letter to the responsible cargo reporter,” the spokesperson concluded.
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This is a reuse of current technology by Sars and will result in minimal impact to external stakeholders. – Sars spokesperson